The mass demonstrations of solidarity with the Palestinian people in Dublin, Belfast, Cork and all around the globe show that the craven operation by elements of the bourgeoisie to frame all opposition to Zionism as anti-Semitism has completely failed to hoodwink the working class.
As workers, and simply as human beings, we are naturally outraged by the sight of suffering, and the abuse of others by those with power. The events in Palestine and in particular the Gaza Strip over the past month are sickening, and a stark reminder of the brutality of the Zionist settler-colonial project, which inflicts so much cruelty and suffering on Palestinians daily.
Unable to form a coherent justification for the atrocities perpetrated by the Zionist state, or to defend the indefensible in the battle of ideas, its lackeys instead choose to obfuscate the matter by
(1) falsely describing Zionist aggression as retaliatory in nature;
(2) falsely depicting “both sides” as being as bad as each other and of equal means and military strength; and, perhaps, most perniciously,
(3) falsely attributing opposition to the Zionist settler-colonial project to anti-Semitism.
The cynicism of the ruling class knows no bounds. Those in power, along with their willing clerks in the media, will use any trick in the book to defend their position, and to justify the oppression and exploitation of others. We see how bourgeois political figures regularly attempt to appropriate the language of feminism, anti-racism, mental health and other noble causes to promote themselves when it suits them and abandon them when it becomes convenient. With the cause of Zionism, sadly, it is no different.
It is a grotesque lie to equate Judaism with Zionism. The crimes of the Zionist state have nothing to do with Judaism, nor with the average member of the Jewish faith, and it is obscene to suggest as much. To identify the cause of Zionism and its settler-colonial atrocities as somehow the product of the religion of Judaism is absolutely false, offensive, and, frankly, anti-Semitic. And yet this is precisely what the supporters of Zionism, in occupied Palestine and in the West, do under the laughable pretext of opposing anti-Semitism.
It is a sad reality that throughout human history all manner of outrages and obscenities have been carried out under the banner or justification of religion. The Irish people need no reminders of this fact. The truth is that the actions of the Zionist state, carried out in the name of religion, constitute some of the most violent displays of racism and hatred in the world today. To be anti-racist is to oppose this barbarity, not the other way round.
We must remember too that Zionism in its present form is a direct result of the “foreign policy” of the United States, one of if not the most racist and savage countries that has ever existed, with the Zionist state acting as a bulwark for the interests of the western bourgeoisie in the Middle East. The cause of Zionism is the cause of the United States, united in a world view of white supremacy and “full-spectrum dominance.” We are talking about a powerful enemy, and one that has a variety of sophisticated (and some not so sophisticated) techniques for waging war, not all of which are physically violent in nature.
Therefore, now more than ever, we must place no conditions or equivocations on our solidarity with the Palestinian people. We must remain focused and unbowed and not allow ourselves to be distracted or derailed by bogus charges of anti-Semitism. Support for the Palestinian people, and opposition to Zionist crimes, will never be anti-Semitic. We must recognise these cynical gestures for what they are: transparent attempts to sow disunity and break the bonds of solidarity that exist between workers and all oppressed peoples of the world.
In Ireland, this solidarity must take concrete form. We call for an immediate boycott of all goods produced by Zionist companies and on Zionist lands, for the cutting of diplomatic ties with the Zionist state, and for the immediate cessation of the use of Shannon Airport by the US military, who ferry arms to and from Zionist forces via Irish soil.
The resistance is global, but it takes shape in the domestic, and the local. The resistance will never be broken. And Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea.
